Sublime seasonal dishes ripe for the picking with Rory O'Connell

There is a time and a place for every ingredient, says chef Rory O'Connell who has just written a new cookery book

Rory O'Connell. Pictures: Clare Keogh

LET'S start with Rory O’Connell’s pomegranate moment. A friend bought him one that had come all the way from Turkey, via Lelia’s grocery shop in London, and delivered the gift – “like special cargo” – to Cork.

On the outside it looked quite ordinary, but when the co-founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School prised it open, it blew his mind. The seeds were the intense ruby colour of jewels, and the taste – “deeply sweet and deeply sour at the same time” – sent him off to an imagined palm-shaded oasis where the fruit had been harvested at just the right time.

“I had reached pomegranate nirvana,” O’Connell says with just the lightest sprinkling of irony.

Of course, eating a perfectly ripe Turkish pomegranate is not exactly an everyday experience, but the joy of tasting an ingredient at its absolute seasonal best is a pleasure that is there for all of us. “It’s just like eating the first new Irish potato or strawberry or baby carrot,” he says.

There is a time and a place for every ingredient, he believes, and, if you allow it, nature can do most of the cooking.

That philosophy permeates the pages of his new book The Joy of Food which is packed full of eclectic recipes that show you how to make the most of what’s in season. Mind you, this exquisite book is worth buying just for O’Connell's beautifully written essays and his wonderful illustrations – or phone-app drawn ‘doodles’ as he too modestly calls them – that punctuate its artfully produced pages.

The book is a hymn to flavour, sustainability, seasonality and the simple joy of appreciating good food in your own kitchen. As he says: “This is for people who like to cook and who love food. I hope readers will find a few gems of recipes in there and draw on them for a lifetime.”

Some of his seasonal favourites include lamb shanks with tomatoes and almonds; sprouting kale tops with anchovy, Parmesan and lemon; and apples baked with chocolate, hazelnuts and sultanas. 

“A lot is spoken about sustainability,” he says. “The information is there like it’s never been there before but the understanding is not quite there yet.” This book will certainly make readers think a lot more about ingredients and when, and how, to use them.

It also does something else. As O’Connell explains: “It was time for me to be a bit more personal, more reflective. I hope my own personal stories will give people a greater understanding of what makes me tick as a professional cook and teacher and make them think a bit more about what they eat.”

He mentions the simple example of thinking about eggs and where they come from. His essay, ‘Heavenly Hens’, is a stand-out tribute to these underappreciated “humble character-filled food machines” that are too often treated with utter disdain by being housed in the most appalling conditions.

“Hens,” he says, “they are unbelievable. I think there should be statues put up to them.” He goes on to list their myriad qualities. They produce eggs, consume food waste, produce rich manure but, perhaps best of all, “the company of hens can be absolutely delicious. You don’t have to walk them. They don’t bark and they don’t need leather leads or tartan coats”.

The Joy of Food, Rory O'Connell

That, however, leads to an inevitable, though uncomfortable, question: Does he find it difficult to eat chicken? It’s pertinent too as that very evening he’s planning to cook roast chicken for dinner with his partner Ruaidhrí.

“I think I try to avoid thinking about it,” he says. “But if you can be part of a process that gives those creatures the happiest possible existence they can have when they are on the planet, honouring them, and then at the end of their lives, if you can be as humane as possible that absolves some of the guilt then, doesn’t it?”

The conversation wends its way into all sorts of areas – his lucky wooden spoon, how a pot of stew can calm an atmosphere, the art of picnics, the mystery of watching a seed grow into something beautiful to look at and the unfettered joy there is in cooking with respect for, and in admiration of, the planet.

The Joy of Food: A Celebration of Good Things to Eat,  by Rory O’Connell is published by Gill Books, €24.99.